Coqui TTS vs openedai-speech
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coqui TTS | openedai-speech |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 31 · At risk | 13 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source, docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 46,056 | ★ 857 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | ElevenLabs | OpenAI API, ElevenLabs |
What are Coqui TTS and openedai-speech?
Coqui TTS
Coqui TTS is a library and toolkit for advanced text-to-speech generation, including voice cloning with the XTTS model. It supports many languages and pretrained voices for fully local speech synthesis.
- Multilingual synthesis
- XTTS voice cloning
- Many pretrained models
- Trainable on custom data
openedai-speech
openedai-speech is a self-hosted text-to-speech server that mimics the OpenAI audio speech API. It uses local models such as Piper and Coqui XTTS to generate audio without sending data to the cloud.
- OpenAI speech API compatible
- Piper and XTTS backends
- Custom voice mapping
- Drop-in replacement
Coqui TTS vs openedai-speech: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: openedai-speech's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Coqui TTS is actively maintained. Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — MPL-2.0 for Coqui TTS versus AGPL-3.0 for openedai-speech. Openedai-speech is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Coqui TTS. Coqui TTS is the more established project (first released 2021), while openedai-speech arrived in 2024. Coqui TTS has the considerably larger community, at 46,056 GitHub stars versus 857.
Why pick each one
Choose Coqui TTS if…
- XTTS voice cloning
- Many languages supported
- Fully local synthesis
Watch out for
- Upstream development slowed
- GPU needed for speed
Choose openedai-speech if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Coqui TTS or openedai-speech better?
Neither is universally better. Coqui TTS has the larger community, while openedai-speech is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Coqui TTS and openedai-speech free and open-source?
Yes. Coqui TTS is licensed under MPL-2.0 and openedai-speech under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coqui TTS and openedai-speech with Docker?
Coqui TTS: yes. openedai-speech: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Coqui TTS or openedai-speech?
openedai-speech has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Coqui TTS. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.